Let’s Make This EarthDay A Real Earth Day.

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With “green” being at the forefront of every TV show, magazine cover, newspaper story – it’s going to be hard to avoid being greenwashed tomorrow on EarthDay. From machines that crush aluminum cans for you using electricity to “environmentally friendly” plastic bottles (what a joke, really – that’s an oxymoron if I have ever heard one), greenwashing is becoming overwhelmingly prevalent in our world. Companies are realizing that there is money in not only selling worthwhile green products but also “green” products that are nothing of the sort. Every day in my inbox I get press releases from companies wanting me to mention these type of products on this site – and every day I write them back “Thanks, but no thanks…I cannot in good faith tell my readers about X product, but good luck to you”. Too many green sites promote all these press releases whether they are a truly green product or not.

This year, make EarthDay truly about the earth – let’s try not to buy anything. At all. Let’s use what we already have. Let’s reuse glass sauce containers as vases. Let’s try to use more microfiber cloths and less paper towels. But mainly lets avoid buying a product that gets advertised as being green…and is not in the least bit green or environmentally friendly. EarthDay stickers not printed with soy inks and natural glues. Earth Day hats and shirts from China with made with non-organic cotton and by children in sweatshops. “Green” cleaners made by a company known for being the world’s biggest maker of toxic bleach. Let’s make tomorrow’s EarthDay the beginning of an awakening, even if it is only a first step for some of us. We will not fall for greenwashing nor will we allow ourselves to be tricked into believing everything we read from companies looking to take advantage of our concern for our planet.

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I was watching TLC last night because they had a couple shows that will eventually be on the new cable channel- Planet Gren. The shows themselves were disappointing but what was worse were the commercials. SC Johnson had a commercial showing how they make their scrubbing bubbles at a factory that uses methane from a nearby landfill to power itself. Just because they use methane from a landfill they helped create and that is probably causing pollution to seep into our groundwater doesn’t make them green.

Here at TitanTv, we”™re so proud to hear that everyone is chipping in and doing their best to participate in Earth Day 2008. (Edited) Check out a funny piece we did, while informing people in the streets of New York, how they, too, can have a great April 22nd.

I think Earth Day is a great opportunity not only to buy less (which is a good short-term action step) but to also educate ourselves about the environmental and other effects of what we buy. For example, a lot of pesticides are used in Columbia on flower crops. This is terrible for the environment and also exposes flower works to health risks like skin and liver cancer. (There’s a good video on this called “Poisoned Flowers” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2hTTkr2KuQ .) We don’t necessarily need or want to stop buying flowers and other products entirely, but we should be aware of what can be done to have more environmentally-friendly production of products that also provides better working conditions.

Oh well said, the attempts to commercialise Earth Day are very sad and counterproductive. We can only solve the current crisis by consuming less and greenwashing distracts too many people into thinking that we can buy ourselves out of the situation